Harvests of 2020. World production has stalled and this could be good news. Find out why

World wine production in 2020 should be between 254 and 262 million hectoliters, 1% more than last year, but far from the record of 300 million recorded in 2004 and almost repeated in 2018, the first harvest estimates indicate advance of OIV – International Organization of Vine and Wine, this Tuesday.

But being below the average of recent years, “is not necessarily bad news for the wine sector”, underlines the OIV, aware of the current context of geopolitical tensions, climate change and pandemics and “market volatility and uncertainty. world of wine “. “, in this estimate that considers the harvest data of 30 countries in which 84% of world production is concentrated.

In Europe, where good weather conditions favored a good year, which was ultimately limited by measures taken by governments of different countries and producer associations to mitigate the impact of covid-19 on the market, the volume of production was year will have been around 159 million hl, 5% more than last year. “In some regions, producers have decided to set winemaking levels below 2019 in response to falling demand,” he points out.

But a more precise analysis of what has happened on the European continent shows that the picture is “much more heterogeneous” than in the recent past. And the proof is the picture of the three major producers (Italy, France and Spain) which represent 49% of world production and 81% of European Union production. The first data for these countries indicate that Italy fell by 1% (43.9 million hectoliters), while France recorded a modest increase of 4% (43.9 million) and Spain grew by 11% (37.5 million).

As for Portugal, it remained at the level of 2019 and the last 5 years, at 6.5 million hectoliters, having shown variations between 7 and 6 million hectoliters since 2015.

In the rest of the world, the United States would have remained 1% above last year, at 24.7 million hectoliters, while China is expected to “continue to contract”, despite a lack of data for 2020, says the ‘OIV, the descending line of the country’s production (13.3 million hl in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2019).

Argentina recorded a decrease of 17% compared to 2019, to 10.8 million hectoliters, South Africa rose 7% to 10.4 million, Australia fell 11% (10.6 million ).